And speaking of books, Lawler's new autobiography is fairly weak and only for the hardcore fan, which I was back in the day. (I have never seen so many misspelled words and typographical errors in a published work before. They definitely saved money on the editing!) Good reminisces about the "early" days of classic Memphis wrestling--Tojo, Jackie Fargo, Sam Bass, Don & Al Greene, etc (surprisingly, no mention of George Barnes, who was one mean-ass heel with his tag team partner Bill Dundee when I arrived in Memphis in '74). Good history of the Kaufman affair--brought a comic tear to my eye how genius that play was(Letterman, obviously had no idea what Kaufman was doing and totally lost control of his show)--but overall this thing was written as if Lawler sat down to write it one day and needed to turn it in within a week. He hardly even bothers to "research" his life for proper dates. There was some good Memphis rock history involved (could have been more esp. since Memphis wrestlers were the first to ROCK!), and Jim Blake even comes out looking like a good guy, giving Lawler some major early breaks!

Lawler paints himself to be much more of a dork than he came off on tv--getting his first girlfriend pregnant (twice in one year!) because he didn't know about the birds and the bees. He also has that annoying "If I could tell you what really happened that night with this girl in Louisville...now that would be a story" style defeating the whole reason why anyone would pick up the book in the first place. I would have loved to hear more stories about the jabrone days in the hick towns in the '70s. I'm sure there were plenty he forgot.

Haven't followed wrestling since it sucked-ie pay per view/wwf/wwe/tbs etc--and I'm glad Lawler, Hart, & Russell made some $ from cable shows, but Memphis had the best shit back in the day. None of that steroid freak/fake Undertaker-shit would have gone over in Memphis--mainly cause we got spoiled by the great plots Lawler & Jarrett wrote, which this book helped me to realize. As co-owner of the wrestling company as well as its biggest star, Lawler had to write most of the plots for the Memphis territory.

Uncle Dan

Posted: Jan 22, 2003 5:48 am

Man, if you want to hear some great shit-talking on Lawler, go to:

www.thehonkytonkman.com

HTM is actually related to the King and hates his guts. If you're a fan of pro wrestling to any degree and get bored online, this site is a great, entertaining timekiller.

Related to the wrestling post made awhile back on the miscellaneous page, as well as what Sherman said above, you've got to give a ton of respect on the Letterman incident. It made what has to be the most successful angle in wrestling history come off without a seam. I swear, the heel promos Andy cut on the people of Memphis during his program with Lawler are the best.

Yes, wrestling is in bad shape right now with the awful writing by the WWE staff but there are still some performers who make it worth watching. I think Memphis was putting out great wrestling product as late as a year or two ago--right up till WWE cut MCW as a developmental territory. I can't believe they cut Steve Bradley shortly after that--I really think he could've gone on to do something.

Is Scott Rogers still doing those bi-weekly 'cycle trips to Milwaukee? Kimala used to ROCK the Coliseum. That dude was crazy. I can't believe he hasn't had a heart attack yet. (p.s. Kimala's background revealed in Lawler's book).

lacey underwear

Posted: Jan 22, 2003 7:31 pm

S Wil is right!Wrestling used to be great and hilarious. Seeing crowds of people screaming red faced at a made up persona is so incredibly funny.The sleazy ass managers in wild suits that would send "Greg's Guys" home in tears.They would piss off thousands of people with folding metal chair sneak attacks and empty promises of putting the good guys in the hospital.Sadly,I was too young to see Lawler in action.I have seen video and heard Sputnik Monroe records... Whoa!!!I was fortunate enough to see Wrestle Mania V in Little rock at Barton Coliseum in the late eighties.Junkyard Dog,Jake the Snake Roberts,Superfly Jimmi Snuka,Andre the Giant,Rick Rude,Bobby the brain Heenan...it was so pure then.Somehow the same old tricks have manifested into something bad and too obvious to be funny.Maybe Vince McMahon ruined wrestling.

moody prick

Posted: Jan 22, 2003 9:25 pm

...slow down a sec.SPUTNIK MONROE records!?

lacey underwear

Posted: Jan 22, 2003 10:46 pm

I don't really get what you meam... butSputnik Monroe has a 45 "Sputnik hires a band."I only know one person who has it.

Jughead

Posted: Jan 23, 2003 3:01 am

"Sputnik Hires a Band" on Peak records (very obscure Mempho label) is pretty funny, although it veers dangerously close to "racist-rock" (race rock?). It's pretty hilarious when he breaks in about "you cotton-pickin' hornblowers!"

I can remember going to Monday Night Wrestling and actually being afraid Kimala was gonna kill Lawler, and then come after us. He's gotta be in the top 5 all-time wrasslin' villains...

Uncle Dan

Posted: Jan 23, 2003 5:33 am

Man, I really wish there was still some televised Memphis wrestling available over here in Arkansas. There hasn't been since the Jonesboro station dropped MCW.

Yes lacey, Rick Rude was the damn best!!! Nobody in wrestling ever played the cocky scumbag better than he did. I wish he was still alive to shake things up.

The problem with modern day pro wrestling lies with some of the stupid ideas bookers have developed about it (for example, that the title doesn't really matter--check out David Arquette with the old WCW strap and tell me it doesn't matter). For the WWE, it's just inconsistent and insulting storylines. Like they recently decided to do away with hardcore matches, yet two weeks after that, they're having a singapore cane match. Then there's all the dumbass storylines which are not worth repeating here. This is what happens when you hire sketch comedy writers who don't really give a damn to construct a wrestling program--you get a product that conveys a sense of disrespect to both the fans and performers.

I really think things would be different if ECW could've stayed afloat. I know a lot of folks complain about it being a spot-heavy style, but there was some amazing ring/crowd psychology happening in what they did. I try to stay away from spamming boards, but since it fits with the topic, I just posted a review of ECW: The Best Of The Dudley Boyz DVD a few days ago. If anyone is interested here it is:

www.geocities.com/houseofsmut/dudley.html

A collection of great footage from a time before ego and politics ruined everything.

Back to the original subject of the book: is this Lawler thing totally done on his own or was it put out in conjunction with the WWE? If it was in tamdem with them, that could explain why it isn't a little more fleshed out. If you want to check out a great book on wrestling supposedly the best one is "Pure Dynamite." It's the Dynamite Kid's book (folks may remember him as half of the British Bulldogs tag-team) and supposedly, he doesn't pull any punches in what he has to say.

Scott

Posted: Jan 23, 2003 9:47 pm

I've only caught it a couple of times flipping through the channels so I don't know the exact time, but Channel 17 (public access) has some very low budget Memphis wrasslin' on Saturday mornings (maybe the guys from Dunn's?). I don't have cable anymore, but if you do check it out.

P.S. No more bi-weekly motorcycle runs to Green Bay.

eric o

Posted: Jan 24, 2003 7:43 am

that's IT!

Talbot

Posted: Jan 27, 2003 6:44 pm

Man, ECW was great...I loved The Sandman, he would blast Metallica before his match, drink budweisers throughout the match, and then would light up a victory smoke after the match...he also could take the frying pan on the noggin better than anyone.

Uncle Dan

Posted: Jan 27, 2003 10:31 pm

Hell yeah--Sandman was great. Like a less corporate Stone Cold. I think it's a real credit to the Sandman that he came back and did good stuff in ECW after his disasterous stint in WCW as Hardcore Hack. Everything was going fine there till they discovered that valet of his, Chastity, was in a porno earlier in her life and fired her. Bad move--if you watched WCW toward the end, you know they had much bigger things to be embarassed about.

If you're talking ECW, you can't forget about Sabu or New Jack--those guys were nuts. Last I heard, Sabu was involved with some fed run by the Insane Clown Posse. They really need to bring New Jack back, though--what the world needs right now is a really good balcony dive through stacked tables. It was just crazy when he'd pull out the staple gun and squeeze a few off in some dude's forehead.

austinkate

Posted: Jan 28, 2003 12:35 am

did anyone see lawler on mtv cribs? i missed it, but i heard he has several coca-cola themed rooms. wow.

Uncle Dan

Posted: Jan 28, 2003 1:23 am

I saw that thing about Lawler's house but I thought it was on WWE Confidential. His set-up is pretty sweet.

rockandrollnigger

Posted: Feb 5, 2003 8:33 pm

ecw was great but lawler had some good memphis spots transmission problem you jerk!!